Karma
by Madcat-88
Summary: Pre-G1. Revenge, Justice or neither?


Karma  
  
-----------------------------  
  
Author's note: Whilst it's not essential, 'Anything for a laugh' is a prelude of sorts to this. 'Lost' happens near the end of chapter two.  
  
-----------------------------  
  
Several levels beneath the neutral province of Altihex, Maccadam's old oil house grew momentarily quiet as the doors ground open and a pair of Decepticons sauntered in, looking over the crowd as if they owned the place. Conversations soon returned to their normal level: these two, Skywarp and Thundercracker were semi-regulars, usually more interested in the energon than causing trouble.  
  
Thundercracker headed to the bar whilst Skywarp claimed a table from a couple of neutrals who grumbled and swore at the air-warrior but otherwise did nothing. As he returned with their order, Thundercracker saw that Skywarp had called up a Fullstasis board and taken the first move, "Come on 'Warp, not this again."  
  
Grinning as he connected a fuel intake to the energon cannister, Skywarp replied, "I've gotta win someday." It wasn't that Thundercracker was particularly good at the game; Skywarp was amazingly bad.  
  
Later. Much later. Empty cannisters of high-grade littered the table shared by the two seekers. Bebop, the music-bot, had stopped playing and was propping up the bar, refuelling. The oil house was almost empty apart from the seekers, a small group of Autobots and a lone misshapen mechanism brooding in a corner. The bouncers loitered with intent, Nail near the Autobots; Rust, the seekers. The screens were showing re-runs of pre-war gladiatorial bouts. Or maybe it was the shopping channel. It was hard to tell with the sound off. In short, things were winding down.  
  
Skywarp had produced a holocube and was playing a clip from it, a favourite of his: an Autobot's face in close-up, expression shifting from relief through to suspicion, then comprehension and finally a sort of betrayed horror, all in the space of a couple of seconds. Skywarp preferred to play it in slo-mo.  
  
"Remember that?"  
  
"Yeah. Was good." Thundercracker replied non-committally as he watched the footage. Truthfully, he only classified it as 'good' because Skywarp killing Autobots for laughs was far less dangerous to be near than Skywarp bored.  
  
On the autobot table, Beachcomber was going over his day's findings whilst Sideswipe and Backstreet chatted and re-fuelled. It had been Sideswipe's idea to come here when the trio had found themselves caught in an acid-rain storm, blown over from Kalis. Other scientists would have been annoyed with the place, but Beachcomber was happy enough. He hadn't found the noise distracting, and seeing the two factions, three if you counted neutrals, in the same place, not talking, but not fighting either, gave him hope that the war could be brought to a peaceful conclusion.  
  
"No." Beachcomber's systems skipped a cycle as he glanced up and saw the image being projected by Skywarp's holocube. "Highlift." Sideswipe and Backstreet looked around at Beachcomber's quiet statement, then over to the seeker's table where they were watching looped footage of Highlift's final moments.   
  
"Those slagging 'cons...." a maghold disengaged as Sideswipe readied his weapon under the table.  
  
"... what do you think?"  
  
With a start, Thundercracker realised that he didn't have a clue what Skywarp had been asking, but quickly rallied with: "It's your round."  
  
"Nah." Skywarp looked around then stood up with the jerky, over-fast and imprecise movements of the over-energized . "Place is dead," he scooped up the holo-cube and laughed harshly, "bit like this guy."  
  
A low cough from Nail was all that kept Sideswipe from opening fire.  
  
The seekers stumbled out of Maccadams and into the night. Thundercracker looked at the sky six levels above. In theory he powered up his anti-grav systems and took to the air. In reality he managed to get about a span off the ground before his equilibrium systems crashed, forcing him into an ungainly and rough landing. He pulled himself to his feet with as much dignity as he could muster, made a show of brushing some debris from his shoulder and sneered at the hysterically laughing Skywarp. "Polyhex is that way."  
  
Inside, Repugnus lurched to the Autobot's table. "Shooting's too good for them." The three Autobots looked at him in surprise, Beachcomber and Backstreet uncertain, Sideswipe nodding slightly. "I'm Repugnus. One of you lot."  
  
"What's it got to do with you?" said Sideswipe, optics narrowing. Autobrand aside, the mech who'd just introduced himself was Decepticon by design: treads and heavy armour indicated a tank mode, though he lacked the gun barrels common to tank-bots; his weaponry was geared towards close range destruction. The overall impression was of someone who'd been thrown together rather than built.  
  
Repugnus snickered at the reaction he'd received before answering Sideswipe, "They killed your buddy? Think it's all a huge joke? Well, I can change that."  
  
-----------------------------  
  
Another author's note  
  
-----------------------------  
  
I've changed Repugnus' alt-mode on the basis that during the WWI time-frame there don't seem to have been any Transformers with creature alt modes (Though Trypticon, Ravage and the spy-birds have creature primary modes). Additionally, his original alt-mode looks too much like an Umberhulk from Dungeons and Dragons for my liking. (Actually, his tech-spec ability is rather like one of the Umberhulk's special abilities. Coincidence?) 


End file.
